3 More Races in King Juan Carlos Trophy….

RUS 27 “Annapurna” Anatoly Loginov, Vadim Statsenko & Alexandre Shalagin lead overall

With a most perfect sailing day in Cascais, 3 more races were completed to make up for the missed race on Friday due to strong winds. The wind moved around to the west and ranged between 8 to 14kts, which allowed for some great “tactical” racing and exciting finishes….

UAE 9 “Desert Eagle” Hendrik Witzmann, Henrique Anjos & Theis Palm win race 4.

The first race of the day saw gains mainly from the right hand side of the course, until a temporary shift from out to sea on the left allowed for some amazing recovery’s.. UAE 9 must have been slightly concerned to see their hard fought lead nearly evaporate as HUN 57 helmed by Ferenc Kis-Szolgyemi and GER 1123 with Michael Zankel came in strong at the finish from the left. However, UAE 9 just held on to take the win, with HUN 57 2nd & GER 1123 3rd.

GBR 769 “Hombre” with Martin Payne, Joao Vidinha & Antonio Matos win race 5.

In the second race of the day, we managed to start right at the committee boat and tack immediately as my new local crew, Joao Vidinha,  thought the right side of the beat would be advantageous. Indeed it was and GBR 769 “Hombre” lead from start to finish to take a second victory. In 2nd place was again HUN 57 “Johanna” helmed by Ferenc Kis-Szolgyemi, crewed by Tamas Kiss & Karoly Vezer who just managed to hold off a determined challenge from SUI 311 “Sophie Racing” Hugo Stenbeck, Martin Westerdahl & Bernardo Freitas as they slightly over-stood the finish.

Winner of race 6 a very happy Javier Scherk in ESP 71 “Gunter” with Paulo Manso & Diogo Barros.

In the final race of the day, race 6 of the regatta, in order to spread the fleet equally along the line, the Race Committee set a heavily pin end bias as most of the fleet wanted to play the right side of the course. So the lead boats off the line at the pin tacked and crossed to the right to make the most gains. Both UAE 9 and RUS 76 showed great speed and pushed ESP 71 hard but Javier, Paulo and Diogo just managed to catch the last right hand side shift to keep ahead and win the race before a big change from the left turned the last beat upside down.

In the “Corinthian” competition there was a change at the top as POR 57 “Whisper” helmed by Class President Mario Quina, crewed by Fernando Passeiro & Raul Pato had a very consistent day adding a 6th and 11th to their overall score so now lead POR 56 by just 1pt.

Back at the club Naval the tired sailors enjoyed a splendid selection of hot and cold food with plenty of liquid refreshment to help ease those aching limbs. Then suddenly some “Ladies” organised by Tim Tavinor 🙂 jumped up onto some tables to enhance the party atmosphere …  I tell you it’s all happening here at the 21st King Juan Carlos Trophy! 

Higher, Faster, Longer……..     Stavros.  (GBR 769).

P.S.  Thanks again to Ricardo Pinto for some amazing action photo’s & to Timmy T for arranging the entertainment …